Broken Borders

Pacific Standard

In the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, the air is eerily still. Scrub and sand stretch starkly into the distance. Occasionally, border patrol helicopters swoop low, cutting through the calm.

The mighty Rio Grande is not quite an oasis, but it's a brief respite from the sand—and a marker of the border between the desert of the United States and the desert of Mexico. Between Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, the river is straddled by a concrete bridge that tethers the sister cities.

Even though it spans two countries, the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo area is one massive metropolitan singularity from a demographic perspective, with roughly 8,000 people crossing back-and-forth on foot and by car each day. Some Nuevo Laredo residents walk across to buy groceries at Texas supermarkets. People who work in Laredo live across the border for the cheaper rent. Like the river, the bridge has a natural flow. Read more ..

Ms. Diner authored an op-ed which states she refused to sign a document that she "believed in 'the centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem as capital' for the Jewish people. It encouraged 'Aliyah to Israel,' that is, the classic negation of the diaspora and as such the ending of Jewish life outside a homeland in Israel.” Read more ..

Facism in America

CB

Michael Isaacson harbors total disdain for the active and future police officers that he teaches at John Jay College, according to the New York City Police Benevolent Association (PBA) which represents the majority of law enforcement officers in the city. The PBA’s President Pat Lynch is calling for Isaacson’s immediate dismissal from John Jay College of Criminal Justice which is part of the City University of New York.

Recent media reports have revealed the adjunct professor Mr. Isaacson’s disgusting anti-police attitudes and his gleeful embrace of political violence, including violence against police officers, as expressed in his own social media postings.

One of the most vicious and objectionable of these posts, which appeared recently on his Twitter account read: “Some of y’all might think it sucks being an anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it’s a privilege to teach future dead cops.” (See video following this news story)Read more ..

Digital Control

Frontpage

Crowdfunding online company GoFundMe has banned The Glazov Gang, a web-tv show that tells the truth about the threat from the Left and Islam, from accepting online donations.

GoFundMe suspended The Glazov Gang campaign without any notice or explanation, nor have they responded to any queries.

This conduct by GoFundMe is part of its larger effort to shut down the efforts of Anni Cyrus, the producer of The Glazov Gang. Recently, also with no notice or explanation, GoFundMe deleted Anni’s entire account while she was raising funds for her anti-Sharia tour — wiping out all of her donor history and four open campaigns, one of which was The Glazov Gang campaign.

This development is part of a current onslaught by companies who are closing their platforms to those who dissent from the Left’s totalitarian worldview. Freedom of speech and conscience are being annihilated each passing day right before our eyes. Read more ..

The Digital Age

Gizmodo

The story in the New York Times this week was unsettling: The New America Foundation, a major think tank, was getting rid of one of its teams of scholars, the Open Markets group. New America had warned its leader Barry Lynn that he was “imperiling the institution,” the Times reported, after he and his group had repeatedly criticized Google, a major funder of the think tank, for its market dominance.

The criticism of Google had culminated in Lynn posting a statement to the think tank’s website “applauding” the European Commission’s decision to slap the company with a record-breaking $2.7 billion fine for privileging its price-comparison service over others in search results. That post was briefly taken down, then republished. Soon afterward, Anne-Marie Slaughter, the head of New America, told Lynn that his group had to leave the foundation for failing to abide by “institutional norms of transparency and collegiality.” Read more ..

Jewry on Edge

ZOA

After investigating David Myers’ anti-Israel agenda-driven “history scholarship,” other writings, affiliations and involvements with anti-Israel organizations, and his anti-Israel activities at UCLA, the ZOA is convinced that David Myers should not head the Center for Jewish History (“CJH”), and should be removed from this post, for the following reasons:

First, Myers’ “history scholarship” and writings focus on locating, elevating and promoting false and/or outrightfictional accounts libeling Israeli Jews and Israel – while ignoring or disparaging truthful pro-Israel history as “myths.” This is extraordinarily harmful and dangerous at a time when Jews and Israel are being defamed throughout the world, causing increased anti-Jewish violence. Read more ..

Respublica

It is stale politics and the suffocating Democrat-Republican split trembling, earth quaking, and creating a new playing field.

The announcement yesterday by House and Senate leaders that a deal protecting “Dreamers” has been made and will include a border security package comes as a shock and with surprise.

Yet there is nothing but a yawn from the national media in all its fakery — the same national media that made the supposed end of DACA like the coming end of the world. Smaller headlines, fewer commentaries, abject dismissal of this stunning turn around by editors throughout the industry is a bigger story than DACA being saved. Read more ..

History on Edge

HNN

Forty years ago this week one of America’s most highly esteemed historians, David Herbert Donald, penned an op ed in the New York Times that many found shocking. Donald, a Harvard professor, explained that he had reached the conclusion that history is irrelevant and that he intended to convince his students of this when classes began in the coming weeks. This was like hearing from Julia Child that she had decided that cooking is a waste of time and that she intended to discourage would-be home chefs from from even thinking about preparing Crêpes Suzette.

Donald had not lost his mind. From the perspective of 1977, a period marked by gas shortages, deficits, and stagflation, what he was saying seemed to make sense. As he explained, the lesson of American history was the lesson of abundance. Americans, in the words of historian David M. Potter, had been “The People of Plenty.” This had shaped our character and expectations. Read more ..

The Trump Era

Creator

The rising political star of Judge Roy Moore in Alabama is another surprise in a political season defined by the unexpected and the unconventional.

On Aug. 15, Moore finished ahead of Senator Luther Strange in a primary election to pick the Republican candidate who will run in November's general election to fill the seat of former Senator Jeff Sessions. Sessions vacated the seat to become the nation's attorney general.

Strange, who was Alabama's attorney general, was appointed by then-Governor Robert Bentley to temporarily fill Sessions' seat.

Despite Strange being endorsed by President Trump, and perceived as the Republican Party favorite, he was upset by Moore, forcing the upcoming runoff September 26.

Judge Moore, known as the "Ten Commandments Judge" seems to have what resonates politically these days in Alabama and nationally. Read more ..

After the Vote

CB

Transcripts released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that were reviewed by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that the controversial FBI Director, James Comey, started drafting his statement exonerating then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the infamous email investigation prior to the FBI’s questioning of key witnesses, according to both Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina).

The Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley and Graham, who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, requested all records relating to the drafting of the statement as the committee continues to review the circumstances surrounding Comey being canned by President Donald Trump.

“Conclusion first, fact-gathering second—that’s no way to run an investigation. The FBI should be held to a higher standard than that, especially in a matter of such great public interest and controversy,” the senators wrote in a letter to the FBI. Read more ..

America on Edge

Rightside

While our hearts go out to those killed and injured amidst violent conflicts between white supremacist and Neo-Nazi demonstrators and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, VA one thing is clear: bigotry and racial hatred were the primary causes of the casualties. That fact must be firmly and clearly stated, and roundly condemned by our leaders.

Of course, there is plenty of blame to go around. Protesters and counter-protesters alike were responsible for outbreaks of fighting and violence that presaged the tragedy that we sadly witnessed, in which a man drove a car into a crowd of people, killing one woman and wounding several others. What is known thus far about the perpetrator, judging by published excerpts from his social media postings and photographs of him at the Charlottesville march, is that he appears to have strong political leanings. And what’s more, the man has a name: his name is James Alex Fields.

The sentiments that presumably drove Fields to commit such a horrific crime also have names: bigotry, racial animosity, white supremacy, and possible neo-Nazism. We must be clear about naming the evils in our midst, calling them out and banishing, lest they, through want of identification, imbed themselves unconsciously into our own souls. When the spirit of evil – one that we all as humans struggle with – becomes so strong that it finally spills out of our souls and into the streets it has reached a critically dangerous point of development.

Media on Edge

BTH

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.” That quote is attributed to Mark Twain. It resonates today. A number of newspapers have attacked the parent company of this station. Here’s an example.

But what they didn’t report was that Sinclair made identical offers to both Trump and Hillary Clinton for campaign coverage. In fact, nearly 30 offers were made to the Clinton campaign. Shockingly, Politico refused an offer to see correspondence with the two campaigns. Refused to look at it. What’s that say about Politico’s agenda? Read more ..

Trump Era on Edge

FP

Derek Harvey was a man who saw things coming. He had warned of Al Qaeda when most chose to ignore it. He had seen the Sunni insurgency rising when most chose to deny it.

The former Army colonel had made his reputation by learning the lay of the land. In Iraq that meant sleeping on mud floors and digging into documents to figure out where the threat was coming from.

It was hard to imagine anyone better qualified to serve as President Trump’s top Middle East adviser at the National Security Council than a man who had been on the ground in Iraq and who had seen it all.

Just like in Iraq, Harvey began digging at the NSC. He came up with a list of Obama holdovers who were leaking to the press. McMaster, the new head of the NSC, refused to fire any of them. Read more ..

History on Edge

Gatestone

The debate over whether Islam has been hijacked by fundamentalists -- or whether the religion itself preaches the kind of hatred that leads to terrorism -- has been raging since the 9/11/2001 attacks on the United States. Although this issue has not been resolved, one thing is clear: in the Muslim world, the demonization of Jews and Christians is commonplace.

Take Turkey, for example, where anti-Semitism has been exhibited publicly for decades by prominent members of government, the religious establishment and the media. In June this year, the head of the government's Religious Affairs Directorate -- the "Diyanet" -- joined the chorus.

Financing the Flames

Rightside

The Palestinian Authority just made an announcement about cutting welfare payments to families who live in the Hamas- controlled Gaza Strip. I cannot help but wonder if it is simply a cynical PR stunt. After all, less than two weeks ago on July 2, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was quoted on the official Fatah Facebook page promising never to cease financial compensation to terrorists, even if it means losing his presidential title: "'Even if I will have to leave my position, I will not compromise on the salary (rawatib) of a Martyr (Shahid) or a prisoner, as I am the president of the entire Palestinian people, including the prisoners, the Martyrs, the injured, the expelled, and the uprooted.' [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas."

On the one hand, President Abbas just avowed his undying financial support of terrorists and their families – an unwavering commitment to the monetary glorification of terrorism. Read more ..

The Race for EVs

FFF

The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt was supposed to be the electric car of the people—around $30,000, about 240 miles of range per charge and decent space in a little package. But nobody’s really feeling that, and the company has such a backlog of Bolts that it had to extend the summer shutdown of the car’s manufacturing plant.

Reuters reports that GM’s U.S. inventory hit a 10-year high in June, meaning the manufacturer has a whole lot of unsold cars hanging around. Reuters reports that Bolt sales are under 8,000 so far this year, which isn’t great. After all, the Nissan Leaf was even beating Bolt sales in April.

To show just how dramatic this sales slump is, Reuters reported that Paul Masse Chevrolet in Rhode Island advertised having more than 200 Bolts in inventory on Monday with prices from $35,688 to $41,488. Jalopnik could only find 83 in its inventory, all new, which is still a lot. The dealership’s advertised inventory as of Tuesday was 688 cars, new and used from seven different manufacturers, and 83 of them were Bolts. That’s over 12 percent. Read more ..

Perhaps the police should have thrown flowers at the terrorists and “prayed for peace”?

Adalah sent the letters on behalf of the families of the deceased assailants, demanding an investigation into the “circumstances of the shooting deaths" of the three men. Adalah Attorney Mohammad Bassam wrote in the letters that "the incident raises serious questions regarding police personnel's compliance with very detailed open-fire regulations. Police orders regulate all situations in which officers have an option to make use of firearms including when seeking to make an arrest and to prevent immediate harm to human life. In all situations, use of firearms is permitted only when there is a real and immediate danger to human life and as a final option when all other options to prevent this harm have been exhausted."

IDF soldiers have meticulously worded orders about opening fire. However, they are instructed to neutralize terrorists perpetrating terror attacks in order to stop them from continuing their attempts to murder. In this case, one of the wounded terrorists attempted to stand and continue firing his weapon. He was then shot dead by Israeli fire.

Turkey on Edge

NewsMax

In 2016, Rifat Cetin, a Turkish doctor, received a suspended one-year jail sentence — he could have been imprisoned for up to five years — for violating Article 299 of Turkish law code, which bars insults to the Turkish President. The criminally insulting tweet in question compares President Erdogan to the villainous character of "Gollum" from the popular fantasy movie series, "Lord of the Rings." During the trial, Peter Jackson, the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, intervened to testify that the images were no insult, as they actually depicted Smeagol, Gollum’s good alter-ego. The famous director’s statement may have been enough to get the doctor off, legally speaking, but in the end Mr. Cetin was still stripped of his parental custody rights, and was fired from his job.

Overall, Dr. Cetin did well for himself, in Erdogan’s Turkey. This is because President Erdogan isn’t just an Islamistdictator and insecure bully. He is also crazy. And very dangerous to the Western world. Read more ..

Much like the Clinton Foundation, the McCain Institute has received millions of dollars from foreign governments, entities and individuals that raise eyebrows. For example, the Institute received at least $100,000 from a state-run Moroccan company accused of human rights abuses. At least a hundred grand from an organization that donated to a pro-Iran group. And one million dollars from Saudi Arabia. Read more ..

The Race for Energy Dominance

Fuel Freedom

It’s “Energy Week,” and the Trump administration has been touting U.S. potential to achieve international dominance thanks to American-made sources for power generation and transportation fuel.

This is a productive debate for the country. But the goal of achieving American self-reliance in energy can only be attained if we make better use of alternatives to gasoline and diesel for our cars, trucks and SUVs. The reason? We use nothing but domestic resources to make electricity — natural gas; coal; nuclear; wind and solar — but we grudgingly accept that it’s not that way for transportation. If we’re being honest with ourselves, at the current consumption rate for oil, we may never achieve independence.

As Bloomberg Business noted: The U.S. is on track to produce 10 million barrels of oil per day on average next year, according to a forecast from the Energy Information Administration — a milestone that would shatter a record set in 1970.Read more ..

Europe on Edge

Special to TCEN

The future of EU-Russia relations is even more uncertain than ever before. Everyman may observe only deterioration. Mass media broadly covered the extension of the bloc's economic sanctions against Russia by six months until January 31. European Union leaders made such decision on June, 22 during a two-day summit in Brussels. This step followed the Washington's decision to broaden its sanctions against Moscow.

But this is only a visible part of world politics based on the clear desire to punish Russia for annexation of Crimea. The US and European politics continue to consider the sanctions the only effective mechanism to influence Kremlin. Though there is no great success. Sanction cause counter-sanctions and so on and so forth. May be it is high time to try other tools of international diplomacy? Where are talented diplomats who could reverse the situation and prevent further confrontation? It is absolutely urgent because it turned out that Europe punishes not only Moscow but itself.Read more ..

Jewry on Edge

Algemeiner

Where is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)?

As a “new antisemitism” caststhe Jewish state as the cruelest of nations, and her Jewish supporters as “racists,” the ADL has been largely silent. The lies are spreadin newspapers, churches and college classrooms. On campuses,Jewish students are harassed and intimidated. Eventhe curricula in many public high schools and middle schools is biased against Israel. Yet the ADL, once the Jewish people’s defense agency, seems unable or unwilling to effectively fight back.

Case in point: Linda Sarsour, a virulently anti-Israel Islamist who is a supporterof terrorists, and a defender of Sharia law, was a featured speaker at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health’s graduation on June 1.

Yet it was only after weeks of silence, and only when upbraided for that despicable silence, that the ADL finally issued a statement criticizing Sarsour. (Ms. Sarsour is an antisemite who fights to bar Jewish women from the “feminist” movement unless they renounce Israel, and has tweeted that, “Nothing is creepier than Zionism.”

Jewry on Edge

Tablet

Linda Sarsour is a progressive-media darling. One of Essence magazine’s “Woke 100 Women,” Sarsour was named a leader of the Women’s March that followed President Donald Trump’s inauguration, despite declaring that “nothing is creepier than Zionism”—though her wish to “take away” the “vagina” of clitoridectomy victim and human-rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, praise for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, upholding Saudi Arabia as a bastion of women’s lib, embrace of the terrorist murderer Rasmea Odeh, and claim that “Shariah law is reasonable” because “suddenly all your loans & credits cards become interest-free,” are all—at least in my humble estimation—definitely creepier.

Yet Sarsour’s ride on the media wonder-wheel continues—thanks in part to Jewish individuals and organizations who embrace the idea that haters like Sarsour can’t actually hate them. Recently, the “homegirl in a hijab,” as a fawning New York Times profile described her, delivered the commencement address at the City University of New York’s School of Public Health. It was a strange choice on the part of CUNY, not least because Sarsour has zero professional experience in the field.

Media on Edge

BTH

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

That quote was attributed to Mark Twain. False stories spread faster than the truth.

On June 14th, the New York Times published an editorial with an outright falsehood that appears to defame Sarah Palin. The paper claimed Palin incited Jared Loughner. He was the man who shot U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords and 18 others, killing six back in 2011. Immediately afterwards, some liberals blamed Palin for instigating the shooting rampage. Palin was widely considered a potential opponent to Barack Obama the following year. This claim was quickly debunked. In fact, Loughner was a George Bush-hatingliberal. This week, Palin sued the New York Times. Read more ..

The Edge of Healthcare

Creators Syndicate

The number of Americans enrolled in Medicaid has increased from 29 million in 1990 to 73 million today — an increase of 252 percent over a period when the nation's population increased 30 percent.

Total spending on Medicaid today is $574 billion, 275 percent above the $209 billion of 2000.

Medicaid amounts to about 40 percent of the total spending on the 10 largest means-tested federal government programs targeted at low-income Americans. According to the Congressional Budget Office, spending on these programs has tripled as a percentage of our GDP over the last 40 years.

Does all this mean we are becoming a more fair and compassionate nation?

That might have been the intention. But if we honestly look at what is happening, we will see things have gone badly astray.

Some perspective on this is available in a new article by Harvard University economist Edward Glaeser in the City Journal magazine of the Manhattan Institute.

The article, "The War on Work — and How to End It," paints a dismal picture of the direction in which our national culture is trending. Specifically, the deterioration of our culture of work, particularly among "prime-age" men, those between 25 and 54.

According to Glaeser, 95 percent of "prime-age" men were working in 1967. However, during the last recession, over 20 percent of this group was not working. Today, it remains at 15 percent. Read more ..

Media on Edge

Behind the News

We — like every other media outlet — occasionally hear a critic label something “fake news.” And there are some who call everything they disagree with “fake news.” Just because you don’t like a fact doesn’t make it fake. That’s just the way it is.

A recent study revealed something interesting about how people consume information. When offered ten dollars to read an opinion they disagreed with or offered seven dollars to read an opinion they liked, a majority took less money. They’d rather consume information that affirms their personal views rather than challenges them.

Still, there is fake news. The worst of all time goes to the New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief Walter Duranty. His blatantly false reports in the 1930s covered-up the genocide of millions of Ukrainians by the Soviet Union. When newspapers ruled the media landscape none influenced more Americans than the New York Times. Read more ..

Author Essay

contributed

The most startling revelation from fired FBI Director James Comey’s testimony this week was his barefaced admission that he intentionally leaked details of his private conversations with the President to the press in an effort to prompt the appointment a special counsel.

When asked Thursday by Senator Susan Collins of Maine whether he shared the memos he wrote about his conversations with President Trump with anyone outside the Department of Justice, Comey answered:

“I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter – didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons – but I asked him to, because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”

The Edge of Terrorism

Right Side

The message from many Europeans with regard to terrorism is this: enough. That sentiment was echoed time and again in interviews conducted during a broadcasting/reporting trip to Europe which is still underway as I write these words. Europe’s misguided approach to preventing radical Islamic terrorism on its own soil may be the definition of insanity – repeating the same behavior over and again while expecting different results.

The thought of young innocent children who attended the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester being brutally murdered in a radical Islamic terrorist attack is unconscionable and compelled my broadcasting team to travel to Manchester in the aftermath of this deplorable carnage to explore the situation in Europe firsthand.

We visited Manchester, where the radical Islamic extremist suicide bomber Salman Abedi blew himself up killing 22 innocent people and injuring 116 others, to speak with residents of Manchester whose lives have been forever changed by this jarring act of cowardly terrorism.

What I learned from the people I spoke with in Manchester was chilling. While many of the local people with whom I talked to were shocked by the cruel level of inhumanity inherent in the concert attack, they were actually not overly surprised that a terrorist attack took place in their backyard. Many of the people I met in Manchester and London are furious, and they do not feel protected. Time and again, they complained that the British government is not doing enough to address the United Kingdom’s radicalized population. Read more ..

In conjunction with Cambridge University Professor Philip Sheldrake, a Christian, the American Muslim convert Brown slavishly addressed "Power: Divine and Human—Christian and Muslim Perspectives" in a manner hardly flattering to Islam. He noted that "in the Quran, God's power is the superlative of all superlatives, it is total, absolute, and without exception." Correspondingly, the "word that the Quran uses over and over to refer to human beings" is the "slaves of God." Read more ..

The Trump Era

Right Side

It really is a shame. During my Town Hall Interview conducted on my Sirius XM 126 Radio in which HUD Secretary Ben Carson began to explain some of the principles and market dynamics affecting policy initiatives at HUD, Carson noted that at its core, poverty is the result of a ‘poverty mindset’ that is often reinforced by family and social conditions. The media immediately selected that quote and ran with it. The implication in the mainstream media was that ‘cruel, tone-deaf Carson blames poor people for their poverty.’

But the media totally ignored the other things Dr. Carson said about the subject of housing, and the general formula for avoiding poverty. So, in the interest of full truth, it is only fair that we reset the balance here. Dr. Carson first noted that there are studies that show that there are three major self-initiated behaviors that can ensure that the vast majority of people do not wind up in poverty. First, finish high school; second, get married; and third, delay childbirth until after marriage. These three factors alone would filter out almost 95% of all of the poor people in this country. Carson’s remarks were thus focused on what the average person can do to avoid or alleviate poverty.

But this isn’t brain surgery we’re talking about here. Dr. Carson is not some elitist rich guy born with a spoon in his mouth who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. His story is well-documented. He was born to a mother who did not finish high school and was eventually forced to leave a bigamist marriage with two children she had to raise on her own. She was forced into poverty. Read more ..

Inside America

Behind the Headlines

Yale University graduate students launched a symbolic hunger strike. Unlike other hunger strikes this one didn’t pose any health risks. The students still ate meals. This is why they called it a symbolic hunger strike.

A march in Denver, Colorado to protest man-made global warming had to be postponed the last weekend of April. This was due to a foot of fresh-fallen snow.

Mats Järlström developed a mathematical formula justifying increasing the time of yellow traffic lights to accommodate drivers turning right. He submitted his work to the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying to consider. In return, the State of Oregon fined Järlström $500 for the unlicensed “practice of engineering.”

In San Francisco, U.S. Judge Jon Tigar ruled California prisons must provide — free-of-charge — to transgender inmates clothing, grooming supplies, and jewelry that non-transgender inmates must purchase. He ruled in favor of an inmate serving a life sentence for murder. Read more ..

Broken Budgets

Behind the Headlines

There’s one consistency with Congress each year. Congress passes — and the president signs into law — unrestrained spending measures.

It happens when Republicans run Washington. When Democrats are in charge. And when there’s divided government. And they always say the same thing: We’ll be responsible — next year.

Last year, Republican leaders promised the very next spending cycle would include 12 stand-alone appropriation bills. As it is meant to be.

Well, we’re in that spending cycle. Last week, another omnibus spending measure –separate spending bills wrapped-up into one –was enacted. The same thing happened when Democrats controlled both Congress and the White House. So, if all 535 members of the House and Senate claim they oppose omnibus spending bills then how does this happen? Read more ..

Broken Education

National Review

Behind the facades, universities have broken faith with a once-noble legacy of free inquiry. College campuses still appear superficially to be quiet, well-landscaped refuges from the bustle of real life. But increasingly, their spires, quads, and ivy-covered walls are facades. They are now no more about free inquiry and unfettered learning than were the proverbial Potemkin fake buildings put up to convince the traveling Russian czarina Catherine II that her impoverished provinces were prosperous.

The university faces crises almost everywhere of student debt, university finances, free expression, and the very quality and value of a university education.

Take free speech.Without freedom of expression, there can be no university. But if the recent examples at Berkeley, Claremont, Middlebury, and Yale are any indication, there is nothing much left to the idea of a free and civilized exchange of different ideas. Read more ..

Palestinians on Edge

JPC

The impending visit of Mahmoud Abbas to Washington on Wednesday coupled with moves on Capitol Hill to cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a result of Palestinian terrorism makes this a good time to focus on Palestinian governance.

Once the Trump administration does, it will find Palestinian governance has not gone well — despite or perhaps even because of the billions in foreign aid, including American money, pumped into the PA. For example:

The authority’s 2016 budget shows estimated expenditures of $4.25 billion but revenues of only $2 billion. That includes more than $1 billion in contributions from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the European Union and the United States. In perspective, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the territory under supervision of Mr. Abbas‘ PA (the West Bank and Gaza Strip, population estimated at more than 4 million) is about $12.1 billion; Vermont’s GDP (population approximately 625,000) is $29 billion. The PA was established in 1994 as a result of the Oslo Accords.

The Race for Ethanol

The Auto Channel

Two weeks ago I wrote and published a story on TheAutoChannel.com called UNCOVERING THE GAS ROOTS OF CONTEMPORARY ETHANOL OPPOSITION. That story dealt with HOW the petroleum oil industry has worked to distort the truth about ethanol. This story unmasks a specific individual WHO has a history of working to hide the truth from the public about significant health and safety issues, while using his professional and academic credentials as a front for his phony analysis of ethanol.

I just finished reading a new anti-ethanol commentary "How The Ethanol Mandate Is Killing The American Prairie," written by William F. Shughart II, a professor at Utah State University and a Senior Fellow at a think tank called Independent Institute. Professor Shughart is a former economist at the Federal Trade Commission and he has taught at George Mason University, Clemson University, University of Mississippi, and the University of Arizona. Read more ..

The Financial Edge

Behind the Headlines

It’s time to shut-down the Export-Import Bank once and for all. The bank was started by FDR in 1934 to loan money to the Soviet Union. That worked well for us, didn’t it? Now it provides low-interest loans to foreign companies to buy U.S. goods. Nearly half of the 172 billion dollars in loans between 2007 and 2014 benefited only 5 U.S. companies. More than a third — 60 billion dollars — benefited just one company — Boeing. That’s why DC politicians call it the “Bank of Boeing.” So, isn’t selling U.S.-made aircraft to foreign airlines a good thing?

Consider this. In many cases, low-interest loans go to airlines owned by foreign governments, such as China. Should we be subsidizing foreign governments? Foreign airlines then buy Boeing jets for less than U.S. airlines. This gives foreign carriers a competitive advantage over U.S. carriers in the global market. According to one estimate, it’s cost U.S. airlines nearly 7,500 jobs. Read more ..

The Trump Era

ACD

American geopoliticians in the 100 years the U.S. was coming of age as the superpower had the "luxury" of facing a relatively monolithic enemy. From the early 30s, it was fascism dominated by Mussolini and then Hitler until his downfall at the conclusion of World War II. Stalin and his worldwide Communist apparatus moved into that role in the immediate postwar period.

It was only with the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1990 that Washington planners faced what had been the more normal historical array of a number of powerful national and imperial entities vying for power. Turning their hand to this complex has confronted American policymakers - however the disproportionate size and power of their country - with new and perplexing conflicting interests.Nowhere is that problem more apparent than with Washington's relations with the Russians. The muddled argument now taking place in the public arena is only the most obvious expression of this. Read more ..

Media on Edge

Behind the Headlines

The New York Times had a stunning headline. Foreign applications to U.S. colleges have fallen by 40%. Except it’s not true. Here’s what’s happening behind the headlines.

The New York Times claims Donald Trump’s immigration ban has damaged U.S. colleges when it comes to foreign students. It called this the ‘Trump Effect.’

The newspaper relied on this report. So, we read the report, the accompanying press release and the survey results. The truth is far different than what the Times writes.

Nearly 300 colleges and universities were surveyed. When it comes to foreign student applications: 38% reported a decline; 35% reported an increase; and 27% reported no change. In other words — a wash. The difference between this year and last year is statistically insignificant. Read more ..